Realistic or Modern The Bar at the End of the World

[OverconfidentMagi]

There is a place that cannot be found, a place that one finds themselves in without any recollection of how that came to be. It is the bar at the end of the world, a nameless bar that exists nowhere and everywhere all at once. It looks like someplace so familiar, yet at the same time fantastical, subtly changing all the time without any of its patrons truly noticing. It could have existed since the beginning of time, or just built the day before yesterday. The wood and chairs are comfortably worn from years of use, yet nowhere is there signs of mistreatment or damage of any sort, and dust seems to vanish from the air before ever finding the time to settle. It is lit by a flickering light that can hypnotize if peered at too closely, electric or flame or something else entirely no one can say. There are tables and chairs all about, too many nooks and corners that make one question the manner of space this place occupies, and a short hallway filled with too many doors, one or two of which should lead to the bathrooms, if the one in need should be lucky. But what the eyes are drawn to upon wandering into this place is the bar itself. It stretches far into the distance, or just a few feet, with seats open for you to sit if that's your wish. There is an out-of-place sign hanging on the wall behind the bar with this place's only rule: no violence. You can see that the bar is well-stocked with every kind of spirit, familiar and foreign, long-dead and to-be-born, and the man behind the bar asks what you'd like. He looks like no human man you've seen before. Well, he does look like a man, in some capacity. His skin is so pale and smooth, no creases forming as he speaks and moves, so as to give him the impression of a statue or doll come to life. His golden hair seems to be actual threads of precious metal, and his eyes of the same appearance seem to at the same time look through and into your very soul and directly at you in a way so free of predisposition and judgement that it's so unlike the gaze of another human.

The door opens as another patron finds their way to this place, and the man behind the bar looks up with a soft smile and eyes full of warmth.

"Welcome friend, what'll it be?"​

 

[Svisttt]

Ra'zir... was confused. A feeling she hadn't experienced in a long, long time.

Such was life, she supposed. A mess of tangled emotions and experiences that weaved together with many other little things to create a human's nature. Or, at least something akin to it. She still wasn't quite sure what exactly defined human nature, despite her age and many years of experience to go along with it. She'd always been fascinated by humans, with how they acted and reacted with the world around them, and particularly others of their kind- but she was getting a little sidetracked.

Ra'zir walked forwards, with an almost unnatural grace in her movements. Her dress, which flowed down to roughly her ankles, matched with her pale blue skin and short navy blue hair, and her eyes weren't any different. Blue. She glanced around at her surroundings as she walked up to the man who had greeted her, a man with such a nice smile and welcoming eyes. Was she in a bar? It certainly looked like one, and perhaps that was why everything seemed oddly familiar to her. She... did a lot of bar hopping. Anyways, it was like she was walking into a childhood home for the first time in forever- nostalgically distant.

The blue tinted tall woman slid into rather comfortable seat, and though her gaze was guarded there was a polite smile on her face as she studied who she assumed to be the barkeep. He looked like a man- she wanted to believe he was a man, but there was something about him that looked so... unnatural, for a human being. Not particularly in a bad sense, he was quite lovely looking in an uncanny way.

Ra'zir's gaze flickered up to the spirits for a moment, before she returned her full attention to the man, "Ahh... hello! D'you have a bit'a gin? Maybe a few answers, too?" Her voice was soft as she spoke, and although she did her best not to betray too many of her emotions, she couldn't help but feel strangely... trusting of this person.

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

The smile from that man behind the bar never seemed to waver, even as he spoke. "Oh, you'll find this place well-stocked in both spirit and conversation, should you wish for either. Just a moment." He stepped away to pull a rectangular glass bottle down from the wall, and poured it into a shallow cocktail glass. He set the glass before her, and produced a small blue flower that he dropped perfectly into the center of the liquid. It floated there perfectly still, but around it the almost-clear gin was slowly being stained a deep sapphire.

The man took a step back, to show he intended to further tricks. "Now I believe you wished to ask me something?" His golden eyes seemed to catch the flickering light of this place in odd ways, as if there really was flakes of precious metal held within. His smile had taken on a slightly different shape, a kindly beckoning, a playful dare, some nameless force, like a gravity that pulled words themselves towards this person.

 

[Quinnigan]

Suddenly, Eliaes felt his feet hit the worn hardwood of the tavern floor. He felt oddly weightless, as if he was made of air itself and yet somehow retained a solid form. It seemed as if everything had a subtle glowing effect, no doubt caused by the strange light diffusing across the room. This strange place should have sent his survival instincts into a frenzy. Had he had a blackout of some kind? Had he been drugged? Hypnotized? It would be a stretch, but it made just about as much sense as anything else. He had a long list of people that would love to get his hands on him. Mostly enemies. Somehow though... he felt safe.

And he never felt safe.

He blinked, feeling as if he had been ripped from a dream; or rather, ripped into a dream. Yes, that had to be it; he was dreaming. But yet, he didn't remember going to sleep. Or going home after his mission. The last thing Eliaes remembered was staring down the barrel of a gun at a member of the Egyptian Parliament... Did he pull the trigger? He didn't remember that either. He had never felt so damn disoriented in his life; and that was saying something. He felt fine, though. That was good, right? If he couldn't trust his mind to give him any answers, his only other option was to trust his body. He had killer instincts, he was fairly certain that he would be able to sense if he was in danger.

He looked down at himself, giving himself a once-over to make sure he was as fine as he felt. He was in the all-black stealth suit the agency had given him; a breathable black shirt made with Kevlar, black form-fitting cargo-style pants, black a belt equipped with gear, a gun strapped to his side, and black boots. He could feel his bronze-colored hair poking out in all directions, the same it had felt when he pulled off his mask when he revealed himself to his target. If this was a dream, his brain was making up the strangest details.

At a loss of what do say, do, or think, he let his legs carry him. Eliaes wandered up to the bar, eyeing the seats and choosing one by a criteria that he didn't even understand he had. He settled into the seat, two chairs away from an inhuman blue woman. He thought for a moment that he was looking at some fabled Roman Goddess, and his eyes fixed themselves on her ethereal beauty and grace. That was, until he caught sight of the golden-haired man behind the bar. Something about his appearance and how he carried himself reminded Eli of his idea of God. But somehow he simply knew that he wasn't anything of the sort. It was about the only thing he knew at this very moment.

He couldn't help staring at the man, his eyes an open book of confusion, distress, and curiosity. "Excuse me, I'd like a Kossu if you please," he said, asking more on instinct than out of desire. For once, he didn't even have to think about which of the several languages he knew to speak in. He had a feeling it wouldn't matter anyway.

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

The man behind the bar excused himself from his conversing with the blue woman in a polite manner that said he intended on returning to her shortly, his smile moving toward the man who had just taken a seat at the bar. "Certainly," he said, pulling down a bottle that seemed to be filled with plain water, the spirit inside was so clear within the glass. The man paused, staring at the bottle as if contemplating something, and then from a drawer he took out a handful of dark hard candies of some kind, which he set on a napkin. Once he had poured the Kossu, he raised the napkin - now covered with a fine black powder, though when he'd ground or smashed the candies none could recall - and poured its contents into the glass. After a stir to mix the drink into a rather unsavory grayish color, he placed it in front of the man. "Your drink," he said in that same soothing voice before taking a step back.

One might have expected the man behind the bar to walk back over to the strange blue woman he'd been speaking to previously to continue that conversation, but he simply stayed where he was, his golden eyes taking in the expansive view of an entire life sitting before him. But this space, strange as it is, need not follow every suggestion of sense or science, for just as the man behind the bar stood close enough to touch to the man who'd newly entered, the same could be true to the woman sitting two seats down. And in this place those two realities flowed together seamlessly and unquestioned, alcohol and poor lighting providing the excuses needed by the logical mind.

 

[Svisttt]

Did this man ever frown?

Ra'zir couldn't seem to tear her azure gaze away from the man as he poured her a drink, delicately dropping a pretty blue blossom in the middle of it. She peered at it when the man slid the glass over, and it almost looked like the flower was staining the alcohol a pretty blue tone. Peculiar.

Now, Ra'zir had seen many little anomalies, and Rhei and Sol must know she often contributed to such incidents, but this little slice of time was slowly climbing the ladder of weird things she'd experienced. It's simply a bar. Don't get too frazzled, love. But it wasn't just a bar. Every part of her screamed this had to be something more than just a bar.

She returned her focus to the golden-haired man, offering him a smile, although she seemed to have an air of melancholy about her. Nothing out of the ordinary for the blue toned woman, though she did her best not to make her feelings very obvious. "Thanks, hun."

"Now I believe you wished to ask me something?"


"Mmm...? Ah, yes! What's...-" She trailed off, taking notice of someone else sitting down two stools away from her. Another human! Had he just arrived, or had she simply not noticed him at first? Ra'zir's head tilted slightly to the side as she looked at him, and it was obvious he was a bit frazzled. Either that, or he was a surprisingly good actor, but Ra'zir didn't think so. He looked just about as confused as she felt, and had asked for a Kossu when the man excused himself to talk to the newcomer. Her brows furrowed as she racked her brain in an attempt to try and remember what a Kossu was, or what it meant, and looked at her drink as though it would provide her answers.

It didn't, obviously.

She looked at the now sapphire liquid, before raising a finger and positioning it an inch or two above her drink. Slowly, she swirled her digit around in little circles, not quite touching the contents of the glass. The alcohol gradually began to shake gently, before it slowly spun around in the glass as though she were stirring it with a straw. Naoki used to like seeing this little trick, and Ra'zir's breath hitched at that thought of him. She dropped her hand and picked up the drink with her other, taking a deep sip of the alcohol. She took comfort in the familiar bite of it and relaxed- although she hadn't known she'd tensed up so much in just those few moments of stray thought.

Ra'zir set her glass down when she noticed the man was now unoccupied, at least physically. He looked like he might've been thinking about something, although that might've just been his seemingly permanent calm expression. Regardless, she took the opportunity to ask one of the many questions that had been bubbling up within her for the past... ah... how long had she been here?

"What're your names, loves?" It was directed to both of people close to her, mostly because she didn't want to keep referring to them as 'that man,' or 'the other human.' At least, she assumed the other man was human.

 

[Quinnigan]

Honestly, Eliaes wasn't sure if Koskenkorva was even going to be available at this otherworldly little bar. It was common in his home town in Finland, but in all his travels he'd never seen it anywhere else. Sure enough though, the godlike man with the wise smile plucked a bottle down from the shelf. Eli would have been fine with a simple shot of the stuff; that's what he was expecting. So when the barkeep took it upon himself to dress up his modest drink with the black candies, he watched with curious eyes. The candies- oh, not candies now. The black powder glittered faintly as they fell into the drink, giving the clear liquid a subtle but beautiful shimmering effect. Eli got the feeling that the godlike man was doing him a favor by adding the strange substance to his drink.

He took the glass and peered into it, watching it shimmer as small star-like sparkles spun in his hand. "Wow... thanks," he said, giving him a disoriented but thankful little smile. Instead of downing the stuff as he did with most alcoholic drinks, he opted to sip the drink and give it a genuine taste. He was glad he did, too. Though the revolting and familiar taste of the vodka hit his taste buds the hardest, there was subtle flavor weaving itself through the alcohol. It was sweet, and it had a cooling effect that counteracted the burning sensation as it went down his throat. It was absolutely delightful. He could have sworn it made him feel better, too; but in what way he couldn't discern.

The delectable sensation in his mouth seemed too magical to be real. There was just... no way he could have dreamt up something like this. He simply wasn't that creative. Any sense of reality he though he had was gone, like a breath caught by the wind. Nothing made an ounce of sense. Eli felt distress bubbling up inside himself again and he took another sip of his drink.

The voice of the blue goddess pulled Eliaes from his reverie. He looked over at her, again intrigued by her beautifully inhuman features. What did she say again? Oh, their names. He didn't know how to react to that. Normally he would never have given out his name, especially to a complete stranger. But was there even a point in worrying about his identity in this place? Hardly.

"My name's Eliaes Lokenen," he said, glancing between the godlike man and the blue woman with anxious eyes. "Forgive me for asking, I'm not... from here," wherever here was, "but... what are you?"

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

The golden-haired golden-eyed man smiled in response. "Names tend to come and go as the night waxes and wanes and my patrons lose themselves in their own spirits. You're free to call me whatever it is that pleases you, I will not be offended no matter what string of letters or words you piece together." There was a glint of an amusing memory behind his eyes. "A competent server will always know when they are called upon."

He leaned back against the wall of spirit-filled glass bottles and brushed some imagined crease or dust from his pants. "Though I do recall a man who once came to this bar whom spoke quite similarly to yourself. The name he called me - and I do apologize for any mispronunciation, as the man had been on this third round by this point - was Yazir'el. He said it meant 'he who is made of gold' though again, he'd been rather unsober at the time, so I would question the validity of his translation. In fact, he'd been drinking the very same thing you have before you now. Never asked for anything else."

Without moving his body in any perceivable way, it was clear that the man behind the bar had shifted focus to the other guest. "As for something more comfortable to your tongue..." He thought about it for a moment. "I suppose the most appropriate name I could give would be Joshua. If it makes you comfortable, you are free to come up with another name. It is just us here now, I doubt it will cause any confusion."

The barkeep chuckled softly, even that seeming calm. "No one is from here, this is a bar, a place of drinking. I cannot deny that life may have been conceived within this establishment, but I am fairly certain that even fewer children have been born here. I am a barkeep; my job is to deliver drinks, not children into the world."

 

[Svisttt]

"Ah! I'm not from here either- it's lovely meeting you Ellie." Ra'zir had already decided on a nickname for him, and offered the man a warm smile. Her blue eyes almost looked little pools of water upon closer inspection- the colors almost seemed to shimmer in the light in a way that made them look like gentle waves. "I'm Ra'zir, and... forgive me, I'm not too sure what I am!" she responded, her voice sounding rather chipper and happy, "People call me a lot of things, ah, names and otherwise! Uhmm... I suppose if I were to guess at what I am, I think the most common thing I'm referred to as is a... deity? Yes, I think I got that right!"

In response to the golden-man's answer to the name question, Ra'zir blurted, "Aurek! Get it? Golden haired. The- the meaning of it, that is."

She continued to listen to the man talk, taking another deep sip of the gin given to her. Ra'zir briefly wondered if the color would stain her mouth- then realized it probably wouldn't matter too much if it did. "Mmm...? 'Ave you delivered kiddos into this world here? Crowley- you wouldn't've given the poor babes a drink, right?" Ra'zir had always loved children, although talking about them always hurt a little bit. Seeing one was worse, much worse, though she's always tried to make them smile should the opportunity arise.

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

"People drink for many reasons, one of which is to forget traumatic events. I expect one's birth would qualify as one such event." The man behind the bar pondered the idea. "Perhaps I should cater to that youngest of demographics." He seemed to be seriously considering the idea, but with that faint smile on the edges of his lips it was hard to judge anything that came out of them as being truth or spoken in jest.

And then those golden eyes fell, onto the two lonely patrons of the bar. But they slipped away from Ra'zir, solely focusing on Eliaes. "So then," his voice was soft, "Eliaes, it's only fair to turn the question around now and ask, what are you?"

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

Eliaes opened his mouth. "I'm-"

The man behind the bar picked up the glass of Salmiakki Koskenkorva, it's contents barely touched, it's owner no longer present, his seat simply empty. He poured out the dark liquid and began to wash the glass.

"So, my dear deitess," he spoke without looking up from his task. "For what reason could one such as yourself have need to drink alone?"

He inspected the glass - spotless - and returned it to its place, and then those golden eyes flicked towards the door, though no sound had come from it. "Welcome friend," he greeted the new arrival. "What'll it be?"

 

[TerrorKitty]

Samantha stepped through the door, looking a bit confused, but not for where she was, but why. She was, tallish, a slim body something maybe a track runner would have...Or maybe a tennis player? Her hair was, blonde, no, black....It was a mix of a both, a bright blonde color with dark bleeding streaks of black, that seemed correct, she hoped at least. Samantha was wearing a dress, a long sundress, wait no, it was a t-shirt and shorts. A accentuating her near but not quite hourglass frame. Her hips were wide and her shoulders didn't seem out of place, though her bust was quite average, to the eye her entire body was a marvel. A seemingly perfect image despite being very ordinary, or maybe she wasn't?

Stepping forward, her sneakers near silent on the polished floor, Samantha sat at the bar and burried her head on the counter, her hair sprawled around it. "Some Vodka please" She groaned, not really taking the time to question it, nor the blue creature next to her. Right now she was sad and needed some way to be complete.

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

"Certainly." The man behind the bar smiled warmly, despite that warmth seemingly going to waste being directed at this woman who didn't even bother to lift her head when vocalizing her desire. But his role was simply to provide, and so he did. The woman paid him no heed as he prepared her drink, so the practiced flourish he put into its creation may have been for Ra'zir's benefit, or it may be that this person was simply incapable moving in a way that didn't seem unnaturally graceful.

As he had before, the man behind the bar took liberties with his guest's order. He poured clear vodka into a rounded glass, and then added from each side a light yellow liquid and a deep red liquid. They mixed at first, but the man waited and watched it, and as he did the two colors again began to separate within the glass, the yellow falling to the bottom while the red rose to the top. Then into the glass he added a sphere made of ice, and as soon as he did the colored liquid began to move again, streams of each color flowing around the ice and into one another, like converging currents of some miniature ocean found only within this glass.

Of course, with her head down the woman would have missed all of this. "Your drink," the man behind the bar said with a smile as he set the drink down before the pile of hair that had asked for it.

 

[TerrorKitty]

"Thanks..." She grumbled, lifting her head and groaning out before grabbing the glass and drinking it in one sitting. "Fuck, I'm not even sure if I'm legal." Samantha added as she put down the soda can. "I'm not sure why I'm here but I don't really care, I'm so....Frustrated. I want to be complete. I want to be a character. As of now, I'm just an idea, a thought. Not very detailed either. I mean I think I play tennis?" She said rambling to the bartender as her body flickered and her eyes cycled through colors. Burying her head in her hands the girl, now woman sighed and sat back.

"Someday I'm going to be drawn, completed, I'll have a life, and a story. Maybe some cool ability or power....Or I'll be scrapped. Tossed out. Replaced. I'm terrified. I just want to be someone that other people can admire. Someone worth something. So far, I have a name Samantha Black and that's it. I'm just a name."

 

[Svisttt]

The blue toned woman looked up from her drink when the first- and ironically only word, came out of Eliaes' mouth, only to find... that he wasn't sitting there anymore. Huh. Mayhaps we have a little teleporter? She didn't expect to be so nonchalant about it, but ah well. Perhaps this was normal. Who was she to judge?

Ra'zir watched as Aurek cleaned the man's glass for a brief moment, before tilting her head back and finishing off her own drink, her mind no longer focusing on the peculiar disappearance of the bar's previous guest. Though, part of her wished he stayed a little longer. He seemed like an interesting fellow.

"So, my dear deitess, for what reason could one such as yourself have need to drink alone?"

"Ah... when you hit 202,800 or so, one can accumulate quite a few reasons to do such!" Ra'zir said, a small smile on her face. It wasn't a very happy one though, more so that gaze you give a person when melancholy gets to be a bit too much. "Bet my sister would enjoy this place though, now that I think about it. My brother... perhaps not so much. He can be a bit... stiff? Although, he is quite charming."

Ra'zir glanced at the tuft of hair now seated at the bar, wondering when she arrived, and she would've offered her the same warm smile she'd given Eliaes had she been able to see her. "Goodafterevening, love~!" she said softly, trying to sound welcoming.

The blue woman simply mindlessly observed for a little while as Aurek offered the newcomer a drink, allowing them to talk as her thoughts wandered off elsewhere. She thought about Idris and S'tratas and what they might be doing right now- Ra'zir hadn't seen them in quite awhile. Usually she visited her siblings quite often, although she'd entered one of her regular periods of isolation. She hoped they understood her reasonings for it and weren't worried about her too much.

Her attention flickered back to the girl and Aurek during the tail end of the newcomer's rambling, stating that she was simply a name. Samantha Black. Ra'zir chewed her lip, tossing the name around in her head. It wasn't one she heard very often, Samantha. Smiling at her, Ra'zir responded in her usual soft and airy voice, "...Ah! Samantha. Pretty name, quite fitting," she complimented, "I doubt you're just a name, love. What do you want to be?"

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

"Two hundred thousand is quite a large number," the man behind the bar commented in response to Ra'zir's declared age, "and quite a long time. Long enough for one to come down with all manner of immortal curses." He let out a calm sigh, then raised a finger. "But when put in the right perspective even that can become insignificant. Twenty trillion. That many mortal lives have come into existence during your own little two hundred thousand years. Collectively, those mortals have experienced more than one hundred trillion years of life during your own few hundred thousand." He smiled at her. "When looked at through a different perspective, you seem less like an immortal deity and more like a little girl, so small and young compared to the world you find yourself in."

The man behind the bar glanced to the drink he'd created for the unstable new arrival, that by Azathoth's fickle whims had been transmuted into a lesser drink. It returned to the form he had made it and was changed no more. He moved to refill the glass, again creating that strange concoction that would be certainly wasted on this person.

"Samantha Black," he said as he refilled her glass without looking at what he was doing, his golden eyes meeting her own cycling orbs. "You exist. Regardless of how many times the blind idiot god changes you, destroys you and recreates you, in this moment you exist. We may all be nothing more than illusions within this vast dream, but then isn't the illusion of free will good enough?" He looked down out of necessity to see if her drink was mixing properly and then placed it before her. "Even if it's a lie, you are something separate from your creator. It is okay for you to have dreams that do not belong to them, set goals that are not theirs." His golden eyes flicked towards Ra'zir as he said this.

 

[TerrorKitty]

To the words given by the odd bartender and the inhuman blue being, Samantha sat there and closed her eyes, drinking in their words as if not hearing them, but rather feeling them. The lie of her own existence, was just that, a lie, but that was something. Samantha was her name, Samantha Black, she had a name and so far she had some semblance of a body. "You're right. I... Exist." She said to no one in particular, her eyes still closed. Suddenly small freckles started appearing on her face as blonde/black hair shifted to a dark auburn that got lighter as is cascaded around her head. Samantha's legs shortened a bit while her shorts became jean shorts and her shirt grew the image of a smiling sun.

Opening her eyes, now settled on a bright green the young woman looked around and smiled for the first time since she got here. "Thank you." She whispered taking the re-filled glass and taking a sip. It really was good. "I think I like tennis...But I also like to write, no I like to dance! I love history and science I think, yeah. I'm pretty smart I'm sure." It's at this moment that her mind exploded into her new intellect, which gave her the understanding to begin building herself from the ground up, creating her life, shaping reality around her.

 

[OverconfidentMagi]

The man behind the bar made himself seem busy looking over the vast stock of spirits lined up on the wall behind him, leaving the two patrons to their drinks and thoughts. He took down a large amber bottle, read the small text covering its label, and then replaced it on the shelf, only to pick another at random and repeat. The somewhat regular clinking of glass became a hypnotic melody of noise, drawing the listeners further and further inside themselves. Would it be memories of the past they fell into? His golden eyes peered deep inside Ra'zir, where she drowned pain with drink. Or would it be piecing together their future? He watched Samantha Black out of the corner of his vision.

He returned a bottle to the wall, not bothering to read it. The melody of glass came to a silent end. Without a word, he rushed over to the register, which neither patron had taken notice of before now. The thing looked more like an antique typewriter than anything, clacking loudly as the man behind the bar pressed a series of keys with one hand, and dinging as the drawer popped open. He fished around inside the drawer and pulled out a silvery metal coin. He held this up before Samantha's face, and with a wide smile gestured towards the far wall. There sat an ornate jukebox.

"Your pick," he said as he set the coin in front of her. "Something to dance to."

The man behind the bar smiled after Samantha before returning to Ra'zir. "How about you? Do you dance?"